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Zimbabwe faces worst food shortages

Zim Online

Tuesday 08 May 2007

By Nqobizitha Khumalo

BULAWAYO
- Crisis-hit Zimbabwe faces its worst food shortages yet with this year's
harvest expected to meet only 30 to 50 percent of national requirement,
according to the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWSNET).

FEWSNET
is a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) network for
monitoring hunger, food availability and shortages across the
globe.

In its latest food outlook report on Zimbabwe covering the
period from March to July 2007, the network said widespread crop failure
caused by poor rainfall and a long running economic crisis had combined to
drastically slash food production in the southern African
country.

"Moderate and severe levels of food insecurity will occur in
many households throughout the country, but especially in the south, and
emergency assistance will be required from about July for an unspecified
number of beneficiaries countrywide," the report reads in
part.

FEWSNET said about 1.5 million people out of the 12 million
Zimbabweans were in need of urgent food aid and said the number of hungry
people would rise in the coming months and peak around early 2008 when the
network said food shortages would worsen to levels not seen in recent
years.

Relief agencies led by the Zimbabwe Red Cross reported at the
beginning of the year that they were feeding 1.3 million
Zimbabweans.

President Robert Mugabe's government has already declared
2007 a drought year but the cash-strapped Harare-administration has not made
a formal appeal to the United Nations for the world body to institute an
international appeal for food for Zimbabwe.

However, neighbouring
Malawi last week announced it had agreed a deal to sell 400 000 tonnes of
maize to Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe, which also had one of the most vibrant
economies in Africa, was a regional breadbasket but has had to survive
largely on handouts from international food agencies since Mugabe began
seizing commercial farms from whites for redistribution to landless
blacks.

Failure by the government to provide resources and skills
training for black villagers resettled on white farms saw agricultural
production plummeting by about 30 percent, causing food shortages and also
crippling Zimbabwe's manufacturing sector that largely depended on the
farming sector for inputs.

"The situation is not expected to
improve much in the drier south of the country as this year's harvests have
mostly failed due to the poor rains. The most affected provinces include
Masvingo, Midlands and North and South Matabeleland."

Zimbabwe
requires about two million tonnes of maize for annual consumption but
estimates show that this year's harvest will total a mere 400 000 tonnes
maize, the country's main staple food.

Apart from food shortages,
Zimbabweans also have to contend with inflation of 2 200 percent and the
highest in the world, unemployment above 80 percent and shortages of
essential medicines, electricity, fuel and hard cash. - ZimOnline

Mugabe throws spanners into Mbeki
initiative

Zim Online

Tuesday 08 May 2007

By Edith
Kaseke

HARARE - President Robert Mugabe's government is ill-prepared for
local government elections it has called for next January and by staging the
polls could scuttle a regional initiative to find a negotiated settlement to
Zimbabwe's fast deteriorating crisis, analysts said.

Zimbabwe has
been plunged into its worst political and economic crisis, which critics
blame on Mugabe's controversial policies and the main opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) party charges that the crisis is chiefly a
result of disputed elections it says has been rigged by the governing ZANU
PF party.

After failing to garner enough support to extend his rule to
2010, Mugabe has rallied supporters in his ruling party to back his
candidature for president next March. Local Government Minister Ignatius
Chombo this week said council polls would be held in January.

"ZANU
PF is trying to use the local government elections to gauge the public mood
before the presidential and parliamentary elections," John Makumbe a
political commentator and critic of Mugabe said.

"But I don't think
the government is fully prepared for these elections and it will give ZANU
PF an opportunity to rig the elections in the ensuing confusion," said
Makumbe.

The analysts said for example, hundreds of thousands of
potential voters had no identity cards and were not on the voters' roll
because the Registrar General's office was not adequately resourced to
register voters.

Although the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has released some
foreign currency, Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede says the money is not
enough and that his department is not operating at full
capacity.

Analysts said existing tough security laws, such as bans on
public meetings and rallies in some parts of Harare, the MDC stronghold,
made it difficult for the opposition to campaign for the
elections.

The MDC accuses Mugabe of cheating in all major elections
since 2000 and that he is likely to rig his way to victory if the current
electoral environment is not changed. Mugabe denies the charges and instead
says the opposition has lost support and is a bad loser.

The two MDC
factions say a Southern African Development Community initiative led by
South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki to facilitate dialogue between the
opposition party and ZANU PF should ultimately lead to a new constitution
that guarantees free and fair elections among other issues.

Mbeki has
said he wants to ensure the outcome of future elections in Zimbabwe is not
contested, something the MDC says is only possible if there are changes to
the electoral rules.

"But already the government has called for elections
in January and the assumption is that these will be held under the current
Constitution," Eldred Masunungure, a University of Zimbabwe political
scientist said.

"Now already its clear that either the MDC will boycott
the elections or that in the event that they participate, the outcome will
be contested," he added.

The analysts said Mugabe had already
discounted Mbeki's initiative and was instead concentrating on further
tightening his grip on power.

Mugabe, now 83 years and in power since
independence in 1980 will have served 33 years as Zimbabwe's leader if he
wins next year and serve the full five-year term.

His critics say the
veteran leader has presided over a deepening economic crisis that has
resulted in inflation shooting past 2 000 percent, the highest in the world
and left eight in 10 Zimbabweans without jobs and the country relying on
food imports.

"Mugabe is not taking into account the Mbeki initiative and
this effectively puts the dialogue into jeopardy. Elections held under the
current environment will be rigged," said Makumbe.

"This is a complex
web of intrigue being run by ZANU PF, and the best way forward is to set the
dialogue into motion and proceed quickly to set an agenda especially of a
new constitution because the elections, including the local government ones,
can be delayed to accommodate the new constitution," he added.

Mugabe
routinely dismisses the MDC as a puppet of his Western enemies and says the
opposition party is being used to try to topple his government from power as
punishment for his seizure of white-owned commercial farms to give to
blacks. - ZimOnline

Zimbabwe Parents Face School Fee Increases Of As Much As
2,000%

VOA

By Jonga Kandemiiri Washington 07 May
2007

Some Zimbabwean schools have increased tuition fees for
the term to begin Tuesday by as much as 2,000%, citing economic necessity in
the face of inflation that ran at an annual rate of about 2,200% in April.
Some parents in response said they would have no choice but to remove their
children from their now-unaffordable schools.

Correspondent Babongile
Dlamini of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe reported from the second city of
Bulawayo that some boarding schools Monday turned away children arriving for
lessons in the new term, demanding cash payment up front.

Elsewhere,
the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe said members in the two provinces
of Mashonaland East and Mashonaland Central have been receiving death
threats from suspected state agents and supporters of the ruling ZANU-PF
party. The union said some teachers might request transfers or delay
returning to work.

The union said rising tension ahead of national
elections in March 2008 has already gripped the two provinces, both of which
are ruling party strongholds.

Progressive Teachers Union General
Secretary Raymond Majongwe told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri that because the
union is non-political it is telling its members to focus strictly on their
duties in the classroom and avoid partisan activities.

TIME Interview - Zimbabwe's Outspoken Archbishop

Archbishop Pius Ncube, 50, occupies a curious position in Zimbabwe. He is
one of President Robert Mugabe's most outspoken critics, and this year offered
to lead a street campaign to oust him. So far Ncube has been untouched by the
repression that has befallen other opposition figures. Possibly this is because
Ncube can be just as scathing about the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (M.D.C.). Possibly it is because he is a Roman Catholic, the religion in
which Mugabe was raised. There are signs that his religion may not protect him
for much longer, however. On Saturday, Mugabe told the Zimbabwean daily, The
Herald: "Once [the bishops] turn political, we regard them as no longer
spiritual and our relations with them would be conducted as if we are dealing
with political entities and this is quite a dangerous path they have chosen for
themselves."

After being arrested and forced to leave the country by a government that
has little tolerance for journalists, TIME's Africa bureau chief Alex Perry
spoke to Ncube by telephone at St. Mary's Cathedral in Bulawayo.

TIME: Describe your own experience of Zimbabwe's sudden implosion

Ncube: At independence, out of 53 countries in Africa, Zimbabwe was
the second biggest economy, second only to South Africa. The infrastructure, the
roads were well done, the railways and telephones were good, the health sector
was good. The schools were the best in Africa — we had a 86-90% literacy rate.
We had a sophisticated economy. And the Zimbabwean dollar was strong. In 1980,
one Zim dollar was one pound sterling — or two American dollars.

Mugabe had been drilled in socialism and communism, and people thought he
would tow the Marxist line. But when he took power, he respected what was there.
He included other people in his government and he respected agriculture and the
farms as the backbone of the economy.

TIME: What happened?

Ncube: Mugabe is extremely power conscious. He's obsessed. Anything
that disturbs his power base, he immediately reacts. In the 1980s, he sent the
[North-Korean trained Zimbabwean Army] Fifth Brigade into Matabeleland to kill
20,000 people. It was crazy. It was his own people. It's absolutely diabolical.
Atrocious.

Basically, he can never have any opposition. He wants to be acknowledged as
the only cock on the dunghill. He must have a one-party state. That's always his
mentality.

TIME: How has that affected the M.D.C.?

Ncube: Mugabe has demonized them. He calls them a puppet of the West,
Tony Blair's agents. A few years ago, he realized he was going to lose power. He
also realized the [white] farmers were backing the M.D.C. So he decided that the
only option was to break up this force, to invade the farms and crush the
farmers. But one the results was economic collapse. Inflation is 4,000%,
according to business people I talk to. Prices double in two days. People are
leaving the country. You can't survive here. The government pretends the
exchange rate is 250 Zim dollars to the [ U.S.] dollar; in reality it's 25,000.
It's disastrous. And as people leave, Mugabe's people, who have a lock on
foreign currency in Zimbabwe, are buying up every business in Bulawayo.
Everything is geared towards the advancement of Mugabe and his party elite.

TIME: How does the regime's behaviour affect general morality?

Ncube: These people have no moral values. They are totally opposed to
morality. The amount of suffering they have created: half of our children are
out of school. These people have no conscience. What goes, what is allowed, is
what suits Mugabe and what suits his aims of retaining power. They're really
depraved. They are totally corrupt, ruthless, cruel.

In South Africa , Mandela set the standard for other leaders to follow. We
have Mugabe, who does anything for power, whose god is power. As a result, moral
standards no longer have any importance in Zimbabwe. Moral standards have
plummeted. Corruption has never been so bad. Young people are so opportunistic
now. Anything goes. People survive by stealing. They say: "Whatever helps you,
do it." They are imitating Mugabe. This is the heritage he has passed on.

The only things that matters is the regime's staying in power. They wouldn't
mind if half all Zimbabweans die. Didymus actually said that. He said they only
care about the people that support them. [In 2002, Minister for State Security
Mustasa Didymus said: "We would be better off with only six million people, with
our own (supporters). We don't want all these extra people."] Five hundred
people die of AIDS every day in Zimbabwe, but Mugabe does nothing to improve
health. They are a mafia. A few people are stinking rich and the majority are
below the poverty line. The people are being fed by the World Food Program — a
third of us would be dead if it wasn't for the help that we're getting — but
Mugabe is still berating the West. He never looks into himself and admits his
mistakes. And the truth is that 99% of what we are suffering is because of this
one man.

TIME: How long will he stay in power?

Ncube: He said he would step down in 2002. Then he ran, and he cheated
and rigged the election. Then he said he would step down in 2008. Now he has
just been nominated by his party.

TIME: Could Zimbabwe recover?

Ncube: There's been a brain drain. All the intelligent people —
doctors, lawyers, teachers — have left. Zimbabwe could recover still; people are
used to work. Even today, people will walk 20 or 30 kilometers a day to get to
work and back. There is a lot of talent in Zimbabwe. And the West is ready to
invest and get things up and running again. And all we want is what any man
wants: food on the table, shelter, a future for our children, security and
peace. Our only problem is Mugabe. He thinks Zimbabwe is his property. He
prevents everything. We cannot live. We cannot breathe. But we are not his
property. We are not his donkeys. He is riding us. We need to get this guy out.

TIME: The opposition seem very weak, though.

Ncube: have a crisis of leadership. Morgan Tsvangirai failed to
deliver. People put their hopes in him, but he seems directionless, and the
party has split. Meanwhile, Tsvangirai tries to convince the U.K. and the U.S.
that he is the opposition.

TIME: You've said you would lead a peaceful protest campaign.

Ncube: We should all come together. We must be orderly, not violent —
or these people will thump you. I would lead an orderly crowd. The trouble is
getting people to be convinced of that.

TIME: Are you not afraid?

Ncube:They do harass you in every way. They invent things about you.
They say I am gay, which is far from the truth. This phone is tapped. They could
kill me any time if they wanted to. They say that when you have 20 people
together, one or two of them will be Mugabe's spies. He has infiltrated
everywhere, even the Church. I don't care. I will say what I want to say. I will
not be quietened. I am not their slave. I do get afraid. But there comes a time
when you have to overcome that. I take a stand because I am convinced I am
speaking the truth. And the church must always defend the
poor.

Zimbabwe human rights lawyers released on bail

HARARE, May 7 (Reuters) - A Harare court on Monday released on
bail two Zimbabwean human rights lawyers in a case activists say is part of
a widening crackdown on government opponents.

Alec Muchadehama and
Andrew Makoni, members of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), were
charged with obstructing justice after their arrest on Friday, the group
said.

"The two have been released on bail and they will appear in court
tomorrow when we will make an application for refusal of further remand,"
Irene Petra, of the ZLHR told Reuters.

The two were on a legal team
that represented opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and several dozen other
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) officials after they were arrested in
March and assaulted for defying an official ban on rallies.

"The two
have been released on bail and they will appear in court tomorrow when we
will make an application for refusal of further remand," Irene Petra, of the
ZLHR told Reuters.

"They were charged with ... defeating or obstructing
the course of justice."

Human rights groups have accused President Robert
Mugabe's government of widespread human rights abuses.

The government
has threatened to react strongly against opposition forces Mugabe accuses of
trying to topple the veteran leader on behalf of Zimbabwe's former colonial
master Britain.

Last month, the government launched a crackdown on the
MDC, accusing it of a "terrorist campaign" of petrol bombings. The
opposition denies the charge.

Analysts expect the government to step up
pressure on all its opponents ahead of general elections next
year.

Mugabe, 83, has been in power since white rule ended in 1980 and
has been endorsed by his ZANU-PF party to run again for president in the
elections, which the opposition says it may boycott.

The government
has threatened to expel Western diplomats Mugabe accuses of supporting the
opposition, and to ban non-governmental organisations he says are funding
opposition politics.

Urgent appeal: Human Rights Lawyers under siege in
Zimbabwe

Kubatana

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)May 07, 2007

The
secretariat of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) requests your
immediate URGENT intervention in the following situation in Zimbabwe
regarding the unlawful arrest and continued detention of human rights
lawyers in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) notes
with mounting outrage and consternation the perpetual harassment of human
rights Lawyers in Zimbabwe - ZLHR is particularly concerned with the
unlawful arrest and continued detention of human rights lawyers, Alec
Muchadehama and Andrew Makoni.

Background of the caseWednesday 25
April: The wives of the two lawyers receive two anonymous calls at two
different occasions and the calls were both threatening the families of the
two lawyers saying that they were going to be dealt with ruthlessly and that
their husbands will meet the same fate. Suspected Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) operatives began following the lawyers , keeping their
distance and monitoring their movements.

Friday 4 May: The CIOs who were
following the two lawyers, together with police details from the Law and
Order section approached the two lawyers at around 16h30, outside the High
Court during the course of their business and arrested them. They were taken
to the Law and Order section at Harare Central police station "for
interrogation" but were not provided with reasons for their arrest. This
time the Zimbabwe intelligence seem to have handed them to the police.
Lawyers attending at the Law and Order section were able to confirm the
presence of the two lawyers but were chased out of the offices by Detective
Inspector Rangwani, who also threatened to physically assault the lawyers in
attendance.

An urgent application (HC 2346/07) was filed by ZLHR at the
High Court of Zimbabwe, and at around 21h30, Justice Tedius Karwi granted a
"temporary order" directing the police to allow lawyers access to Makoni and
Muchadehama and to allow them access to food, medical attention if
necessary, and visitation by their relatives, pending the hearing of the
matter the following day. Despite this, the police defied the court order
and denied access. Two court orders to this effect have been disregarded to
date. Efforts to locate the lawyers have been futile for the past three days
and the harassment and threats to other human lawyers have continued with
impunity.

ZLHRZLHR strongly condemns the unlawful actions of the
police in this matter. Senior police officers at several stations, as well
as the entire Law and Order section, continue to remain a law unto
themselves, and impunity for their actions is further entrenched as each day
passes. Further, the continued contempt of court orders by the police has
become an everyday phenomenon and no person is safe from those who are
constitutionally obliged to protect the people of Zimbabwe. Such actions
cannot be tolerated or condoned in a democratic society.

ZLHR calls
upon all human rights organizations, citizens of Zimbabwe, Individuals
beyond Zimbabwe, fellow human rights defenders, advocates and friends of
freedom to take action and write to the Zimbabwean Government to restore
rule of law.

Action requestedPlease write to the Zimbabwean
authorities, urging them to:

a.. Immediately release the two lawyers,
Alec Muchadehama and Andrew Makoni b.. Immediately cease the
molestation, use of threats, mental torture and interference with privacy,
family and home of Mr Muchadehama and Mr Makoni. c.. Immediately cease the
use of intimidation against lawyers who are officials of the court and
should be allowed to carry out their duties without fear. d.. Respect
the rulings and judgments of the courts of Zimbabwe and cease the current
culture of ridicule towards such rulings and orders of the High Court of
Zimbabwe.Addresses:

Beatings and Abductions Continue in Zimbabwe

VOA

By Peta
ThornycroftHarare07 May 2007

After the
high-profile police beating of senior opposition politicians in March,
state-sponsored political violence in Zimbabwe is now targeting mid-level
opposition activists and ordinary citizens who are being dragged out of
their homes, and beaten, mostly at night in Harare's high-density suburbs.
Peta Thornycroft reports that doctors, lawyers and opposition political
leaders describe it as a terror campaign perpetrated by state security
agents against opponents of President Robert Mugabe.

Every morning,
victims of political violence are showing up for treatment in various
doctors offices in Harare.

The doctors say that since March 11, when many
opposition leaders were arrested and suffered serious injuries in police
custody they are treating at least five people a day, every day. They add
they have reports that more injured people remain at home, unable to travel
to town for treatment, or too poor to afford transport.

One doctor,
who asked not to be identified, said he had never seen so many victims of
severe beatings in his career as a private medical practitioner in
Harare.

Victims of political violence say they are unable to seek help at
public health facilities, as they have to produce a certificate from the
police about the cause of their injuries before they can be treated. This
was confirmed by State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa in a telephone
interview with VOA.

"Because the police would have been called in and
the hospitals here do not treat cases like that without reference to the
police," he said.

Many of the victims are officials of small branches of
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, but some have told doctors
they have no political affiliation.

University of Zimbabwe senior
political analyst Eldred Masunungure says the ruling Zanu-PF has embarked on
a two-pronged strategy. The first, he says, is designed to soften up or
neutralize the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in advance of the
Southern African Development Community's mission to bring ZANU-PF and
opposition groups to the negotiating table before national elections next
March.

Masunungure adds that Zanu-PF is in election mode and on what he
described as a war footing. He says Zanu-PF has always used violence as an
instrument of persuasion.

Alec Muchadahama is a lawyer who handles
many of the political detentions in Harare. He has regularly brought cases
of severe beatings suffered by his clients in police custody to the
attention of the courts.

He says political repression, especially
beatings, has never been worse with daily arrests of people he believes are
on a police list of opposition members.

"Apart from those they have
arrested and taken to court, there are also those who police are simply
abducted during the night and taken to far off places in the bushes and
assaulted thoroughly - leave them for dead in the bushes," he said. "And
some of them are taken to police stations where they are also seriously
tortured and simply released."

Muchadahama and others have told VOA that
some people abducted from their homes at night disappear, and no one knows
whether they are dead, in hiding, or have fled to South Africa.

State
security minister Didymus Mutasa denies the government has been beating
people up in the townships. He told VOA the victims are lying about the
attacks.

"There is nobody who is being beaten. Please do not make me
angry," he said. "I am telling you again and again that there is nobody who
is being beaten, but you are telling lies."

Victims of violence say
they are not always sure which branch of the state's extensive security
machinery is responsible for the ongoing reign of terror in the townships.
But different individuals have identified the Central Intelligence
Organization; the military police; or, youth militia loyal to Zanu-PF as
being responsible for their abuse.

The government accuses the opposition
of engaging in terrorism and says the MDC is responsible for 11 petrol bomb
attacks, mostly in Harare, since March 15. The majority targeted police
stations and Zanu-PF owned homes in the high-density suburbs.

The MDC
denies the allegations; but 31, mostly senior members of the MDC, are now in
prison awaiting trial on terrorism charges. Lawyer Muchadahama said the only
evidence the police have produced so far are some confessions he says were
extracted under torture. He adds that the arrests are
political.

"Because the police are saying on a daily basis they want
to carry out raids in an attempt to arrest would be saboteurs but in this
process they are going for any person who they suspect is an MDC sympathiser
or activist and is treating them in the manor I have described," he
said.

Shortly after the interview with the VOA, Muchadahama and a
colleague, Andrew Makoni were detained and held at Harare Central Police
Station. The Harare High Court ruled on Saturday they should be released
immediately.

Update on the arrest of Makoni and Muchadehama

Kubatana

Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)May 07, 2007Following the continued
defiance of Justice Karwi's Order handed down on Saturday at 1230hrs (5 May
2007), a further Urgent Application was filed on Sunday morning (6 May 2007)
seeking the production of Andrew Makoni and Alec Muchadehama before the High
Court so that the Court could confirm their safety and ensure that they were
released into the custody of their legal representatives.

Whilst this
was being filed, police from the Law and Order section at Harare Central
police station visited the offices of the law firm of Mbidzo, Muchadehama
& Makoni taking the two detainees with them. The police, led by one
Detective Inspector Muchada, were armed with a search warrant and proceeded
to raid the law firm. Lawrence Chibwe, the Deputy Secretary of the Law
Society of Zimbabwe, and Otto Saki, were threatened with arrest when they
sought to scrutinise the search warrant. Police proceeded to remove certain
files and documents from the offices and did not allow the lawyers to take
an inventory or remain present during the search.

It is unlawful to
search and remove documents from law offices, as they are protected by legal
practitioner-client privilege. This, however, did not deter the
police.

Muchadehama and Makoni were then taken back to CID Law and
Order.

In the afternoon at around 1600hrs, Justice Chitakunye granted a
further Order that:

a.. The Respondents be and are hereby directed
to physically deliver the Applicants before this Honorable Court within one
(1) hour of the service of this order on any one of the
Respondents.

b.. The Applicants' legal practitioners be and are hereby
granted leave to serve copies of this order on any of the Respondents or
officers of their section.Armed with reinforcements, 7 lawyers attended
at CID Law and Order section to serve the Order. The situation was extremely
tense and several lawyers had to withdraw from the police station fearing
imminent arrest by increasingly hostile and uncooperative police officers.
The Order was eventually served on the Respondents at 1824hrs, meaning that
Muchadehama and Makoni should be brought to the High Court before
1924hrs.

In a further act of defiance, the police again ignored this
Court Order. Lawyers waited in vain at the High Court until around 2130hrs.
It is now unclear where Muchadehama and Makoni spent the night. ZLHR lawyers
are currently searching for their whereabouts.

Muchadehama and Makoni
were due to appear in court on behalf of clients today in several critical
matters affecting personal liberty. Efforts are being made by other lawyers
to deal with the cases, but the police defiance of three court orders has
directly contributed to the violation of constitutional rights of other
Zimbabweans to protection of the law, presumption of innocence, and being
represented by lawyer/s of their choice.

Zimbabwe lawyers to stage protest march

New Zimbabwe

By Staff
ReporterLast updated: 05/08/2007 02:32:48ZIMBABWEAN lawyers will march
on Tuesday in as demonstration to protest the alleged harassment of legal
practitioners by police after two lawyers were arrested by police on
Friday.

The International Bar Association on Monday led international
calls for the lawyers' release.

"The arrest and detention of (Andrew)
Makoni and (Alec) Muchadehama is another example of the precarious situation
in which human rights lawyers work in Zimbabwe," said Mark Ellis, Executive
Director of the International Bar Association.

"We are witnessing an
extremely worrying turn in the rule of law situation in Zimbabwe. President
Mugabe's government has escalated attacks on political dissenters in recent
weeks and no effective international action is being taken to stop the
flagrant violation of international law in that country. Lawyers who
denounce these attacks on fundamental freedoms and defend victims are now
targets."

Makoni and Muchadehama are representing a dozen opposition
activists held on charges of detonating a series of bombs across the
country. It was still not clear what charges the two lawyers faced late
Monday.

Beatrice Mtetwa, the President of the Law Society in Zimbabwe
said lawyers would march from the Harare High Court at lunch time on Tuesday
to protest at the arrest of their colleagues.

Zimbabwean police have
crushed several opposition protests in recent weeks, and it was not
immidiately clear if they would allow the lawyers to march.

Mtetwa said:
"There is no law that says police must approve the march. It only says they
have to be notified, and we have done that."

Muchadehama and Makoni, both
of Harare law firm Mbizo, Muchadehama and Makoni, were arrested last Friday
after challenging a certificate issued by Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi
imploring a magistrate to refuse a defence application to have charges
dismissed against 13 members of the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).

Mtetwa's said their march would be in protest of the going
harassment of lawyers in general, and the arrest of Muchafehama and Makoni
in particular.

Justice Tedious Karwi ordered on May 4 and May 5 that the
lawyersbe released over the weekend after ruling that the detentions were
unlawful, but police defiedthe order.

In recent months attacks
and threats on lawyers by state agents have been on the increase, says the
Zimbabwe Lawyers For Human Rights (ZLHR).

The ZLHR says another lawyer,
Richard Chikosha, was assaulted by the police over the weekend while trying
to serve police with Justice's Karwi's order directing the two lawyers'
release.

"Chikosha was dragged to the police station where he was
assaulted by police and warned by (Musarashana) Mabunda to 'go and reverse
Justice Karwi's order'," the ZLHR said.

Mabunda, a veteran of
Zimbabwe's liberation war, is the head of the CID's Law and Order section in
Harare.

The ZLHR said it understands Muchadehama and Makoni will be
charged under section 184(e) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform)
Act for obstructing the course of justice.

"No further details of the
evidence against them has been provided to their legal representatives," it
added.

Rogue buffalo kills three in Zimbabwe

Harare - A rogue buffalo killed three people in
Zimbabwe's wildlife-rich Zambezi Valley, including a husband and wife
working in their fields, a newspaper reported on Monday.

Thirty-three-year-old Adam Wesile was killed as he tried to rescue his wife
Felistas from the buffalo in their cotton field in Mushumbi, northern
Zimbabwe, said the Herald.

"When they saw (the buffalo), the
couple believed it was a cow resulting in the woman advancing towards it,
intending to drive the beast away," the paper reported police spokesperson
Michael Munyikwa as saying.

It was, however, too late for the woman
to run away when she realised it was a buffalo, the paper
said.

She was killed on the spot, and her husband
was injured as he tried to rescue her. He died after being admitted to the
nearby Guruve hospital, the paper said.

Another 25-year-old man
identified only as Chimanga was killed by the buffalo on the same day while
collecting firewood, the Herald said. It did not specify when the attacks
took place.

The buffalo is still on the loose and police have
warned villagers in the area to be careful. Game rangers are trying to hunt
down the animal, the paper said.

There are regular cases of
people being killed by wild animals here, especially elephants, crocodiles
and buffaloes. - Sapa-DPA

Mugabe blocks MPs' questions over NOCZIM
corruption

New Zimbabwe

By Lebo NkatazoLast updated: 05/08/2007
03:56:54LEO Mugabe, the chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on
Transport and and Communications faced a mini-revolt from fellow committee
members on Monday when he blocked MPs from quizzing a minister over the
alleged abuse of the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) fuel by Zanu
PF officials.

Tempers flared when Mugabe, a Zanu PF lawmaker for
Makonde, declared that a question on the alleged corruption involving fuel
by the opposition MDC's MP for Harare Central, Murisi Zwizwai, was "out of
order".

Zwizwai first asked Nyambuya why Zanu
PF was benefiting from Noczim fuel, but was ruled out of order by Mugabe who
said the allegations of corruption were "not a party issue".

The
meeting was called after the committee found out that money allocated in the
budget for road construction was not being utilised, with constructorsciting
lack of fuel.

Nyambuya told the committee that there were "competing
priorities" andgovernment had provided a list of government departments and
parastatals to be provided with fuel.

Zwizwai rephrased his question
and asked: "The schedule you have given us listing those being given fuel
does not include Zanu PF. So why is Zanu PF getting NOCZIM
oil?"

Before, Nyambuya could respond, Mugabe interrupted: "We are not
talking about political parties. We are talking about transport -- public
transport.

"I do not want to be misunderstood on our role and functions.
We have no problem with whoever you give fuel. We just want roads to get
fuel."

Zwizwai interjected and said the reason why the roads were not
getting fuelwas because it was going to Zanu PF, which was not on the
priority list, so the question should stand, but Mugabe, again ordered
Nyambuya not to respond.

The MDC MP said he would ask the question in
open Parliament.

"Chairman, you are becoming over - protective," Zanu
PF's Chitungiwza Senator, Forbes Magadu muscled in. "You have made this to
degenerate. I am very cross with you."

He was also ruled out of order
by Mugabe.

A visibly angry Luveve MP Esaph Mdlongwa warned Mugabe: "Next
time you should take us seriously."

Prior to that, Mhaka told the
committee that the country requires 3 million litres of diesel and 2,5
million litres of petrol per day at a cost of US$ 3,3 million but NOCZIM was
providing 270 000 and 300 000 litres per day respectively.

The
private sector was also importing fuel but this was not enough to meet daily
national requirements.

Fate of British 'mercenary' in hands of despots

The fate of Simon Mann, the alleged British
mercenary, lies in the hands of two of Africa's cruellest despots, as
Zimbabwe prepares to decide if he should be extradited to Equatorial Guinea
to face coup charges.

The old Etonian, currently in jail in
Zimbabwe for trying to buy "weapons of war" from the state arms company,
could be handed over to one of President Robert Mugabe's few remaining
allies after a magistrates' hearing in Harare on Wednesday.

The
53-year-old is accused by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema's regime in
Equatorial Guinea of plotting a coup against him in 2004. It was foiled. Mr
Mugabe, who has bankrupted Zimbabwe and needs cheap fuel and friends, has
been feted by the oil-rich Obiang regime after the arrest of Mann and a
private army of 69 mercenaries at Harare International Airport.

If Zimbabwe's capricious courts, regularly more loyal to Mr Mugabe than the
constitution, agree to the extradition request, Mann can appeal to the High
Court, and if that fails, the Supreme Court - which can take years to hand
down decisions in cases which Mr Mugabe deems sensitive.

If the
extradition request is refused, however, and providing Equatorial Guinea
doesn't appeal the decision to the High Court, Mann will be freed on Friday
from the filthy Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison on the outskirts of
Harare, where scores of inmates die every year from malnutrition and from
where no one has ever escaped.

The former SAS officer would then be
able to fly home to be reunited with his second wife Amanda and their four
children on his estate, Inchmary in Hampshire. His youngest son was born
after he was arrested in Harare.

advertisementOil is at
the heart of the case. President Obiang has become rich from the United
States' exploitation of Equatorial Guinea's oil, while its population of
500,000 is among the world's poorest. It was this oil, according to
President Obiang, that attracted Mann and associates in London to plan the
coup.

Mann, frail, thin, but in good spirits when he appeared in
leg irons in a makeshift court at the prison last week, has undoubtedly
suffered, but not badly in comparison with ordinary Zimbabwean prisoners. He
receives regular visits from British diplomats and his lawyer routinely
sends his driver to the prison with food.

During the hearing,
Zimbabwe refused entry to officials from Amnesty International who would
have testified to Equatorial Guinea's shocking human rights
record.

Zimbabwe's filthy jails are luxurious compared to President
Obiang's prison in Malabo, where inmates die like flies. Mr Mann told his
legal team they should "consider me dead" if he is extradited.

Catch-22 for Zimbabwe

Washington Times

TODAY'S EDITORIALMay 7,
2007

Amnesty for a dictator like Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe would
be bitter medicine. But if it's needed to pry this 83-year-old thug from
power, then Morgan Tsvangirai is willing to discuss it. Mr. Tsvangirai, the
heroic Zimbabwean opposition leader, proposed immunity from prosecution in
an article on the opposite page Friday. The proposal can't be dismissed out
of hand when it comes from Mr. Tsvangirai, whose consistent and scathing
rebuke of this brutal regime has meant constant risk to life and
limb. Mugabe thugs all but brained him at an anti-Mugabe pray-in. His
skull was fractured; he spent a week in the hospital. That was on March 11.
Not three weeks later, the police entered his offices once more to arrest
him, hours before a speech on Mugabe criminal misrule. Any form of amnesty
for this tyrant would rightly be controversial. The man heads one of the
worst tyrannies on the planet. "Operation Clear the Trash" two years ago is
but one horrible example of his disastrous misrule. He bulldozed entire
towns and cities, making refugees of an estimated 1.5 million people. These
towns were reckoned "illegal." Many just happened to be strongholds of the
opposition. This is a country where annual inflation reaches four figures
and potatoes are a "strategic crop" because mass starvation is near.
If not a comfort, or at all just, other nations have found a beginning to
recovery when they grant immunity to a dictator and his cronies. The
opposite trend is emerging of late in several once-tyrannized African and
Latin American nations. The Liberian warlord Charles Taylor was arrested
last year in Nigeria and goes on trial next month at The Hague. The late
Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet did not escape trial despite amnesty. The
Pol Pot treatment, in which a monster lives out his days in remote
anonymity, is becoming a thing of the past. As Mr. Tsvangirai put it: "These
are dangerous times for dictators." Amnesty would be a "Catch-22," he
rightly says, but is perhaps one worth considering. Without it,
Robert Mugabe will cling to power until he dies. He can only figure that a
jail cell or worse awaits him after removal. He has too many enemies to
expect otherwise. Roger Bate of the American Enterprise Institute sums up
persuasively the argument for amnesty: "Mugabe is one odious man, and he
should be in jail, but his country is far more important than him. If he
steps down peacefully and as a quid pro quo has a luxurious lifestyle in
exile, so be it." In the end the decision belongs to Zimbabweans acting in
defense of their country, which is far more important than what happens to
one single thug.

Mugabe, Mbeki as tight as thieves

Mbeki is not a neutral mediator. He is Mugabe's supporter,
biased in favour of Mugabe.

When the entire world was begging him to
denounce Mugabe's suppression of democracy, he refused.

The "quiet
diplomacy" policy was a ploy to hide his support of Mugabe. He has blamed
the British for withholding the compensation of the white farmers whose
farms have been redistributed.

He has endorsed the past elections in
Zimbabwe as free and fair. He has described Mugabe's government as a
democratically elected government, in spite of credible reports by
independent international reporters of suppression of the media and
widespread intimidation of voters.

Mbeki failed to denounce the brutality
perpetrated by Mugabe on the opposition.

Mbeki made remarks about the
land redistribution issue to Tanzanian university students in a tone that
gave the impression that he is spreading the propaganda of Mugabe and
Zanu-PF.

The only honourable thing Mbeki can do now is offer Mugabe
political asylum.

That would enable Zimbabwe to investigate the
allegations of mass murder and other crimes against him.

Mbeki could
assist Zimbabwe by appointing a retired judge like the honourable Willem
Heath to conduct research into what is necessary to bring Zimbabwe back to
stability and democracy.

No negotiations involving Mugabe himself can
solve the country's crisis.

He has completely destroyed his country's
economy and caused untold suffering to the people of Zimbabwe.

If
Mbeki attempts negotiations with Mugabe, it will be a futile exercise that
will extend Mugabe's stay in office and lengthen the period of suffering of
the people of Zimbabwe.

Risking death to flee Zimbabwe

The First Post

thabo
buthelezi finds out how it feels to flee Robert Mugabe’s regime the
hard way

It is 6pm and I'm about to achieve a
dream that is shared by many of my young countrymen. I am going to leave behind
the fear, misery and poverty of life under Mugabe. I am going to escape from
Zimbabwe to South Africa.

In truth, as a registered journalist with a visa in my
passport, I can enter South Africa whenever I wish. But thousands of Zimbabweans
can't. Instead they choose the method I am trying tonight - climbing the border
fence between the two countries.

There to stop us will be the South African border patrols, who
will arrest us if we surrender and shoot us if we make a run for it.

I'm at the border town of Beitbridge, about a kilometre from
the checkpoint. At a local filling station I join a group of 14 young men, all
from Tsholotsho in Matabeleland. I tell them I want to escape into Mzansi
Africa, as

Border patrols will arrest us if we surrender
or shoot us if we make a run for it

we call
South Africa, and I'm made welcome.

When night falls, our
leader, a young man called Mandla, takes us quietly across the bush until we can
see the border fence. It's a three-metre-high maze of barbed and razor wire -
ironically a leftover from South Africa's apartheid days when it was built to
stop ANC guerrillas infiltrating the country.

Before we can attempt to climb the fence a South African
border patrol shows up. At a word from Mandla we scatter in the dark. The patrol
passes on, and we regroup. We find seven of our number have disappeared.

Now we tackle the fence. Razor wire looks vicious, but there
are ways of crossing it. I struggle at first, but a cunningly placed jacket, a
roll over the top, a couple of scratches, and I'm across. So are the others. We
congratulate each other. We are in South Africa.

We are met by the Omalayitsha - an organisation of highly paid
human smugglers - who load us into a truck and take us south to
Johannesburg.

During the journey we learn tragic news. Three of the seven
who disappeared at the

border chose to attempt to swim across
the Limpopo river. Crocodiles got all of them.

At Johannesburg I confess my identity to Mandla, who laughes
at my stupidity. For me the adventure is over, because I am legally in the
country. Not so my companions. What does the future hold for them, as illegal
immigrants?

The answer is, they stand a fair chance of remaining in South
Africa, principally because, coming from Matabeleland, they speak South African
languages such as Zulu, Sotho, Venda, Ndebele and Xhosa. This means they can
integrate into society relatively easily.

They can apply for asylum, but in Jo'burg the authorities
apply the strict rule of law that says they can't be refugees because Zimbabwe
is not at war. However, authorities down in Cape Town are said to be a softer
touch, and have so far granted 2,000 Zimbabweans permission to stay in the
country.

Other escapees from further north in Zimbabwe tend to speak
Shona, a language not known in South Africa. They face a

Three of those at the border chose to swim
across the Limpopo river. Crocodiles got them all

bleaker future. Many head for the United
Methodist Church in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, where they get food, clothes and
blankets. At present 1,500 refugees are sheltered at the church.

South African police systematically raid houses, shops and
clubs in the search for the estimated one million Zimbabweans currently living
illegally in the country. They are sent back to their home country by train.

Nicola Simmonds, information and communications chief at the
International Organisation for Migration on the Beitbridge border, which
oversees the deportations, says the South African government have sent 130,000
Zimbabweans 'home' during the past 10 months. Currently between 200 and 400 are
dealt with every day.

Back on Zimbabwean soil, they are usually freed, unless they
are wanted for criminal offences. Many - perhaps most - will soon have another
crack at escaping. They'll be joined by others. As long as Mugabe holds sway,
they'll keep on trying.

Mugabe's party wants him to stay on until
he's almost 90

From The Star (SA), 7 May

Harare - The ruling party has resolved differences
over a power struggle to succeed President Robert Mugabe and backed him to
stay in office for another six years, the Sunday Mail newspaper reported.
Didymus Mutasa, the powerful No 3 official in Mugabe's Zanu PF party, said
Mugabe's succession was now off the agenda, according to the newspaper, a
government mouthpiece. "There is absolutely nothing to talk about on the
succession issue for the next six years because we shall have the president
as our leader. He is not going to be succeeded for that period," Mutasa was
quoted as saying. Mutasa acknowledged that two main factions in Zanu PF had
vied for supremacy over who would replace 83-year-old Mugabe. But he said
both factions had closed ranks behind Mugabe's continued role as president.
The party agreed that Mugabe could not leave when he was needed by both the
party and the nation, which were facing what he described as "difficulties",
Mutasa said, according to the newspaper. "So it was quite right of him
(Mugabe) to say: 'I am not going away, I cannot be running away from a
burning house. I should stay and put out the fire'," Mutasa was quoted as
saying. He insisted Mugabe's decision to stay on until at least 2013, when
he would be almost 90, did not leave the party divided. "As trained and
loyal liberation fighters, everyone was rallying around the incumbent
leader," Mutasa said in an interview with the state media, the Sunday Mail
reported.

The tenor of Mutasa's remarks was reminiscent of several
previous occasions when Mugabe, Mutasa and other close loyalists clamped
down on calls within the party for Mugabe, the only ruler since independence
in 1980, to step down. In 2004, the ruling party faced its deepest split
over Mugabe's choice of Joyce Mujuru, wife of the influential former army
commander General Solomon Mujuru, as the nation's second vice-president. She
became the first woman in the post and effectively blocked former parliament
Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa's place as first in line to replace Mugabe.
Mugabe railroaded Mujuru into office, but last year, relations between the
two cooled as General Mujuru became increasingly critical of Mugabe and the
couple's faction strengthened against Mnangagwa's group. Mugabe's critics
blame him for the nation's economic meltdown, citing mismanagement, his
failure to curb high-level graft and for sanctioning state-orchestrated
violence against opponents. These include beatings by police and the
hospitalisation of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Official inflation
is running at 2 200%, and Zimbabwe faces acute shortage of most basic goods.
"Six years? God help us. I don't know how much more of this we can take,"
said one businessman, who asked not to be identified. It is an offence in
Zimbabwe, punishable by jail, to publicly insult Mugabe.

A New Zimbabwe: When
would-be heroes turn bad

Comment from The Mail & Guardian (SA), 3 May

This is an edited extract of Through the
Darkness: A Life in Zimbabwe by Judith Garfield Todd

Then take
Zimbabwe's registrar general, Tobaiwa Mudede. After independence he
displayed humility and kindness, helping many people in many different ways.
When my father was approached for help by an old white woman in a retirement
home he was able to go to Mudede. She wanted to pay a final visit to
relatives in South Africa, but had no travel documents. The two men
successfully did all in their power for her and she had a wonderful last
trip. Yet, over the years, Mudede became one of the most villainous faces of
the Mugabe regime. In 2001, my Zimbabwean passport lapsed, as is normal,
after 10 years. Mudede refused to renew it. Along with his master and fellow
Zezuru tribesman, for that was the level to which they had sunk, he and
President Mugabe were intent on wiping out the citizenship and voting rights
of any Zimbabwean of whatever colour or background thought to be against
their ruling clique.

My father was one of the first individuals
affected. Stripped of his citizenship before the 2002 presidential
elections, his name was put on a special list supplied by Mudede to all
polling stations of those not allowed to vote, even if, like his, their
names were actually printed on the current voters' roll. I was proud of his
response. He did not blink at reality and defer action by saying, "This is
an African problem for which there must be an African solution." No. He went
and confronted the evil directly himself. Although almost 94 years old and
rather shaky, he went to the polls to vote. He got as close to the ballot
box as he could before he was turned away by the hapless presiding officer,
Noyce Dube, former pupil and then headmaster of Dadaya Secondary School,
whose parents had been married to each other decades before by the very man
he was now having to deprive of his right to vote.

The late
Justice Sandra Mungwira found in May 2002 that I had been stripped of my
citizenship illegally. She ordered Mudede to treat me as a citizen by birth
and to renew my Zimbabwe passport. Her decision was later endorsed by
Justice Benjamin Paradza, now a refugee in New Zealand. Mudede appealed
against the high court rulings to the Supreme Court which, like the voters'
rolls and citizenship records, was being cleansed and was under the control
of fellow Zezuru Godfrey Chidyausiku. By then, practically all high offices
in Zimbabwe were held by members of Robert Mugabe's Zezuru clan. Pending the
findings of the appeals court, Mudede reluctantly issued a temporary
passport of one year's duration in which he pre-empted any judgement by
declaring that I was a permanent resident of Zimbabwe, not a
citizen.

The case was argued before Chief Justice Chidyausiku and
others in January 2003. On February 27, in an agonisingly confused and
confusing judgement, the court found that I was a citizen of New Zealand and
Zimbabwe and concluded: "For the avoidance of doubt the respondent has two
days, from the handing down of this judgement, within which to renounce her
New Zealand citizenship in accordance with the New Zealand Citizenship Act.
In the event of her failure to do so, she will lose her Zimbabwean
citizenship by operation of the law." I managed to do what was ordered,
painfully participating in what I knew to be a charade. The New Zealand
authorities responded in July stating that they had received my application
on February 28 for renunciation of citizenship, but that this application
could not be processed as I had never laid claim to New Zealand citizenship.
They could not help me to renounce what I did not have. My temporary
passport expired on July 30 2003 and I was stranded in Bulawayo with no
citizenship and no travel documents.

Judith Todd, the daughter of
Sir Garfield Todd, erstwhile prime minister of colonial Southern Rhodesia,
spent eight years in exile in Britain as an opponent of white minority rule
in Ian Smith's Rhodesia. She returned to Zimbabwe shortly before
independence in 1980, and soon realised that, far from being the solution to
Zimbabwe's ills, Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu PF were increasingly
becoming the problem. As the country slid into economic and social decline,
Todd had a front-row view from her position as director of an international
aid agency. Her memoir will be published this month in South Africa by Zebra
Press.

Not much has changed, so Mugabe stays
on

The East African

By Karl Limo

A certain boxer, I forget
which, when asked if he was not scared fighting a challenger nearly twice
his size, replied curtly: "The bigger they come, the harder they fall!" I am
not going to say the same regarding Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe who,
after 27 years of rule, effectively brought his country to its
knees.

When I heard Mugabe over the radio in the early 1980s,
he sounded so articulate that my admiration of the man was instant. And,
when I learnt that he had seven University degrees and certificates, I
thought to myself: This is the kind of person I would gladly have as my
president.

WITH TIME however, I am not under the same spell
because of how he has turned Zimbabwe - once one of the region's
breadbaskets, into one of Africa's basket cases. Today, Mugabe has few
genuine sympathisers, but a growing number of denigrators and
detractors.

Inflation is officially fixed at 1,700 per cent,
but raging at around 4,000 per cent in real terms - the highest anywhere in
the world!

It is estimated that nearly a quarter of the
country's 12 million people has fled, or are on their way out, just to
survive. Others are escaping political persecution and hounding by the
authorities, including the military which, still answers to
Mugabe!

BUT, IF the bigger they come, the harder they fall,
why is "Big Mugabe" not falling from power at all - let alone hard? At 83
years and still boisterously intransigent, the man has decidedly fallen from
grace.

Charles Onyango-Obbo, has posited why "African
strongmen tend to seem more powerful and entrenched at the point when their
political record is at its worst."

Taking Idi Amin's
Uganda (1971-79), he reasons that, "When an economy collapses, the few parts
of it that are still working are almost always in the hands of regime
officials and supporters. The opposition supporters have nothing and,
therefore, they can't fund anti-government policies ?" ('Mugabe is full of
passionate certainty, the rest lack conviction')

In other
words, the Opposition needs an economy that is doing well (so as) to thrive.
How true!

But, this only applies to the internal opposition.
What about those who oppose the regime's heavy-handed policies, programmes
and protracted political peccadilloes on the outside, like the
West?

What about those in Africa? What about their regional
and continental blocs? We have the African Union and the Southern African
Development Committee (SADC) in place. The latter met in Dar es Salaam on
March 29 and gave South Africa President Thabo Mbeki the task of resolving
the "Zimbabwe Crisis."

Apartheid South Africa looked the
other way when Ian Smith unilaterally declared independence for Southern
Rhodesia from Britain in 1965. The same applies today only that the players
have changed, and the country is now Zimbabwe!

THE
ORGANISATION of African Unity (OAU) - AU's forerunner - had many military
dictators. Nothing much has changed, and today Mugabe gets a standing
ovation at AU gatherings.

Speaking at the University of
Edinburgh, in 1997 the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere said: "I once described
the OAU as a Trade Union of African Heads of State. We protected one another
against whatever we did to our own people in our respective countries. To
condemn a Mobutu, or Idi Amin or a Bokassa was taboo! It would be regarded
as interference in the internal affairs of a fellow African
State!"

What has changed from OAU (May 25, 1963-July 9, 2002)
to AU today? Can Mugabe truly be said to be on his last
legs?

Flower is named as Moores' deputy

BBC

Monday, 7 May 2007, 08:52 GMT 09:52 UK

Former Zimbabwe Test player Andy
Flower has been named as England coach Peter Moores' assistant, replacing
Matthew Maynard with immediate effect.The 39-year-old has retired
from playing cricket with Essex to take up the England job.

He
will join up with Moores as England prepare for the first Test against West
Indies, at Lord's on 17 May.

Moores said Flower was his number one
choice adding: "I feel he will have a significant impact in the
future."

It is Moores' first change in the backroom staff since
succeeding Duncan Fletcher on 1 May.

He added: "Andy will be
joining up with the team for preparation for the first npower Test Match at
Lord's next week and I am grateful to ECB and Essex CCC for moving so
rapidly and enabling the back room team to be confirmed in time for my first
match in charge of the England team."

Flower had been working with
Moores and the England Academy over the winter as a batting coach and used
that time to qualify as a Level Four coach.

He said: "I hold
Peter Moores in the highest regard...and believe that his selection as
England head coach was an inspired choice and reflected well on his work and
that of Rod Marsh prior to Peter in setting up the National
Academy.

"From my time working with Peter at the National Academy,
I know that we shall work very well together and I am excited about entering
into this new challenge of coaching an international team."

Flower had not played for Essex this season because of a hip
injury.

He retires having played 63 Test matches, averaging 51.54
with the bat, and scoring 16,379 first-class runs at an average of
54.05.

He added: "I would like to express my gratitude to Essex
County Cricket Club who provided me with the opportunity to play County
Cricket and supported me so well in my development as a coach."

Maynard had been assistant coach since May 2005 but he and the England and
Wales Cricket Board mutually agreed it was time for him to move on.

He said: "It has been a great privilege and invaluable experience for me to
work so closely with Duncan Fletcher, the rest of the management team and
all the England players at the outset of my coaching
career."

Copper/cobalt bull elephants square up in
the DRC

An extraordinary drama unfolds in the multi billon dollar
Katanga copper-cobalt fields as Camec gains control of 22 percent of Katanga
Mining with an agreement to purchase another 7.7 percent.

Barry
Sergeant

Johannesburg - In events that have confounded even some
specialist investors, Central African Mining announced on Friday that its
has gained control of 17m shares in Katanga, a stake of 22%, and has an
agreement to buy another 7.7%. The cold transactions belie an extraordinary
drama unfolding in the multi billon dollar Katanga copper-cobalt fields. One
important link is Billy Rautenbach, a Zimbabwean citizen who South African
authorities want on South African soil. On Sunday, sources in Harare
confirmed that Rautenbach would be leaving the city on Monday, for
Lubumbashi, in the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
(DRC). It is understood that Rautenbach may be leaving Harare for good,
given the recent filing in Harare of extradition papers by South African
authorities.

It is no secret that following a deal in February
last year, Rautenbach holds around 17% of Camec's shares. The issue that's
likely to burn some tender parts in investment circles is the presence of
Georges Forrest, the "old King of the Congo", and a standing 22% shareholder
in Katanga Mining. Of all the projects in the fabulously copper-cobalt rich
Katanga province, some with dubious pedigrees, few have cleaner papers than
Katanga Mining, Nikanor and Tenke Mining Corp, owned 57.75% by copper giant
Freeport McMoRan. However, of these three mega projects, there is no
question that Katanga Mining will be first in production. Nikanor is
battling with cost overruns and an intractable flooding problem, while the
Tenke Fungurume project may only come on stream early in 2009. At Katanga
Mining, operational cost over the life of mining is likely to be around
$0.45/lb, amongst the lowest in the world. First copper production is
anticipated in December 2007.

While Camec is known not least for
executives Phil Edmonds, who once played cricket for England, and Andrew
Groves, a young wheeler dealer, Katanga Mining is characterised by a small
army of professional mining executives, not least Robert Buchan and Arthur
Ditto, who each own around 7.5% of the company. The background to the past
week's power outbreak in Katanga can be most conveniently traced back to
February last year, when Camec bought Rautenbach's apparent rights to mining
concessions 467, 469 (previously named C19 & C21) in Katanga province,
and 50% of the cobalt-rich Mukondo concession. The other half of Mukondo was
sold in June for around $60m by John Bredenkamp, also a Zimbabwean, to Dan
Gertler, known as the "new King of the Congo". Gertler is a 14% shareholder
in cash-strapped Nikanor, which last week announced that it was involved in
negotiations over a possible change of control.

Gertler, the
foreigner closest to the ear of DRC president Joseph Kabila, immediately
ordered a halt to activities on Mukondo, and nobody appears to be clear
about what happened next. Rautenbach's intractable attitude has played a
part, along with his contract with Camec to run Mukondo. Camec has fiercely
denied any problems with ore supplies; on the contrary, on March 1, it
stated that it's on target to produce 40,000 tonnes of copper cathode and
6,000 tonnes of cobalt cathode and concentrate for the 2007-8 financial
year. Camec's DRC metallurgical facility, moreover, has targeted annual
production template capacity of 100,000 tonnes a year of copper cathode,
according to Camec, and 12,000 tonnes a year of cobalt cathode by 2008-9.
Rautenbach has had squabbles in and around the Katanga copper-cobalt belts
for years. In November 1998, he was named the MD of state-owned
copper-cobalt miner La Generale des Carrieres et des Mines (Gecamines)
during a visit to Harare by then-DRC president Laurent-Desire Kabila. Some
of Gecamines' best cobalt-producing areas were transferred to a joint
venture between Rautenbach's Ridgepointe International and the Central
Mining Group, a Congolese company controlled by Pierre-Victor Mpoyo, then
DRC minister of state.

Rautenbach, who had no mining experience,
was also made MD of the joint venture. Rautenbach's business practices saw
Kabila replace him with Forrest in March 2000. Rautenbach was stripped of
all connections to Katanga, including the Kambove and Kakanda processing
plants, and the large parcel of deposits known as the Kababancola
Concessions, including Mukondo. These assets were officially transferred to
Bredenkamp's Tremalt, which established a new joint venture, Kababancola
Mining Company (KMC). It was thus that Bredenkamp held rights to exploit six
Gecamines concessions containing at least 2.7m tonnes of copper and 325,000
tonnes of cobalt over 25 years, all for a piffling payment of just $400,000.
Put another way, Bredenkamp continued where Rautenbach left off, but split
the profits as to 34% for the DRC government, 34% for the Zimbabwe
government, and 32% for Tremalt, after generous gratuity payments to senior
political and military figures in the DRC and Zimbabwe.

Kabila
was assassinated in January 2001, and replaced by his son Joseph and it was
another year before Rautenbach's name cropped up again. This time he emerged
as one of the largest exporters of heterogenite (cobalt ore) from the DRC,
via Congo Cobalt Company, known as CoCoCo. But then Rautenbach's name was
also linked to another DRC entity, Boss Mining which, it was said, had
acquired two lucrative mining concessions, C19 and C21, as well as 50% of
Mukondo. These were, of course, part of the same portfolio of assets once
stripped from Rautenbach and dealt to Bredenkamp. Early last year, in an
affidavit submitted to the British Virgin Islands High Court by a Rautenbach
ex-partner, Geneva-based lawyer James Anthony Tidmarsh, Rautenbach was
allegedly offered an opportunity as a "sleeping partner" in KMC, but refused
and launched an international arbitration action to challenge his being
stripped of the concessions. In April 2002, Rautenbach withdrew the
application following a settlement with the government of the DRC. KMC was
apparently simply presented with an instruction from the DRC government to
transfer its most valuable assets to Rautenbach's Boss Mining, or face
losing the lot.

Camec has played the Mukondo issue right down. In
its interim results notice on December 5 2006, shareholders were told that
Camec's "joint venture partners at Mukondo were taken over and the new
owners gave us formal notice to terminate operations until a new operational
agreement was effected". In other words, Gertler wanted a fair deal.
Discussions were continuing, but, Camec added, as Camec's Luita processing
plant comes on stream, Mukondo operations "become of less relevance".
Concessions C19 and C21, Camec stated, "host numerous significant copper
cobalt deposits, which are already being developed to feed Luita to maximum
capacity". The DRC recently appointed a Commission under the authority of
the Minister of Mines to review various mining agreements entered into by
the DRC government, or by state bodies such as Gecamines, within a period
prior to mid-July 2007. Some 60 mining agreements fell for review starting
on May 15, with a decision expected after mid-July 2007. Katanga Mining's
Kamoto agreement was ratified by presidential decree on August 4 2005;
Nikanor's titles were similarly ratified on October 13 2005, and the Tenke
Fungurume agreements on October 27 2005. However, presidential decrees are
not everything, and even these contracts may be scrutinized for fairness and
equity. In Camec's case, by contrast, objections may be raised over more
fundamental issues, not least how the contracts were first obtained during
the DRC's 1997-2003 war, under the Zimbabwe military's Operation Sovereign
Legitimacy (Osleg).

Portrait of a
well-rounded citizen as a national asset

A CITIZEN who is blissfully unaware of their rights is
dangerous, both to themselves and to the stability of the state.

In
Africa, the task of ensuring all citizens know their rights has never been
routinely or entirely assigned to the government.

As a result, in many
African countries, the right of the citizens o exercise their right to vote
in elections has been effectively circumscribed through a simple device -
deny them vital information on the crucial role of the citizen in ensuring
they choose the people who must lead them.

In this connection, in
Zimbabwe, if Zanu PF succeeds in preventing a change of leadership being
executed through some deft horse-trading or sleight of hand treachery, the
party may usher into our politics a w era of honesty and openness from which
future generations of politicians might benefit immensely.

Since
independence, most citizens have tended to accept as gospel truth whatever
has been passed on to them by the ruling party.The device employed was
simple: in the new dispensation, there was no room for dissent, because it
could be exploited by the enemy - that being the vanquished colonial
regime.

Unity meant the one-party system. Unity meant one leader. Unity
meant one ideology, that of the ruling party.

In almost every country
which achieved independence after 1957, the citizen was implored not to
countenance dissent from the norm. This resulted in long periods of
one-party, one-leader rule, until there was either a military coup or
democratic elections forced on the regime by Western governments withholding
vital aid, until they were held.

Later, many such governments tried to
devise other strategies to ensure the people were kept blissfully unaware of
their rights.Or new laws were introduced which effectively made it illegal
for citizens to demand such rights as a matter of routine.

In
Zimbabwe, such devices as the Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act (AIPPA) and the Public Order Security Act (POSA) were designed
for just such purposes.

A well-rounded citizen is one who obeys the
laws of the country but is not hesitant to challenge them if they smell a
rat - a law that violates, even nominally, their right to free speech,
shelter, education, assembly, association and food.

Although Zimbabwe
has been touted as having one of the most ate populations in Africa, the
extent of the ignorance of the citizens of their rights is
staggering.

In Zanu PF, this is entrenched in the history of the
party as a liberation movement.

In Mozambique, Zambia and Angola,
from the two parties operated during the liberation war, there were hardly
any recognisable laws in the camps.

Purges were almost routine, as were
executions of dissidents. Wilfred Mhanda (aka Dzinashe Machingura) tells in
graphic detail how cruelly dissidents were handled in the Mozambique camps
of Zanla.In fact, to many analysts familiar with the history of the running
of the liberation camps, there is a disturbing similarity with recent
government changes in the running of the country.

For instance, the
printing of new money, although justified as a device to steady the economy,
has all the hallmarks of a liberation movement resorting to extraordinary
methods to salvage its strategy for survival.

The almost omnipotent role
of the central bank governor is viewed by some conservatives in this light
as well. He now virtually runs the economy, in consultation with the
President, rather than the Minister of Finance.

A military council,
headed by the President and defence and intelligence chiefs is similarly
viewed as a typical device appropriate for a liberation movement in crisis
mode.But the most poignant example is the cloak-and-dagger atmosphere
surrounding the change of leadership in Zanu PF.

Although it was once
emphasis ed by President Robert Mugabe himself that the success routine was
enunciated clearly in the party constitution, all that ms to have thrown out
of the window. Ad hoc devices appear to be preferred this time
around.

Even the republican constitution itself is now being amended as
if it was a social club's or a cooperative's. There is no longer any weighty
debate surrounding such amendments.

The greatest danger we may face
as citizens of a country structured as a democracy - but hardly operating as
one, at the moment - is to allow these hasty, piecemeal amendments to take
effect, without examining them thoroughly, in terms of what precedents they
could be setting for us in future.

At the heart of all this feverish
activity is the bungling capacity of Zanu PF, and how readily the party can
abandon all rules and regulations in the interests of achieving its desired
goals - in this particular case, the assurance that it remains firmly in
power, even if it loses the 2008 presidential and parliamentary
elections.

That the party can even contemplate such a nefarious strategy
is an indication of how successfully it has undermined all or most of the
democratic structures guaranteed by the constitution.

Also, this is
itself an indication of how, because of their lack of enthusiasm for
analyzing their rights as citizens in a democratic country, Zimbabweans
allow this country to drift towards an abyss, a dark hole out of which it
may not emerge until its people decide to take their destiny in their own
hands, and not leave it in the slimy, blood-soaked hands of a party which
has boasted that it was created out of blood.

What has occurred recently
in our country - the killings, the destruction of property and the arrest of
citizens on allegations of committing crimes later proved to be fictitious -
are examples of how we, as citizens, have not devoutly dedicated our lives
to ensuring that we limit the extent to which a government determined to
hang on to power at all costs can abuse our rights as
citizens.

Today, there are foreigners visiting the country who accuse us
of being co-conspirators with Zanu PF in our own persecution.They
believe that if we had denied the party the co-operation which has enabled
it to ride roughshod over all our rights, neither AIPPA nor POSA would have
been passed by Parliament.

There is now a suspicion that the Zimbabwean
psyche is basically subservient. One wag has said: "A typical Zimbabwean
citizen is one who fights for their rights as gallantly and courageously as
those heroes and heroines who waged our struggle against
colonialism."

But there are cynics, people who believe our preoccupation
with wealth-creation is one of our major character flaws. "In pursuit of
wealth, a Zimbabwean is prepared to sell their own mother if the price is
right."

Clearly, this is a gross exaggeration. Yet people from Zambia and
Malawi, and even South Africa, tell of how carefully they have learnt to
deal with Zimbabweans when they have the "wealth bit between their teeth".
They characterise our women as being without scruples when it comes to money
- "more than other women from the region".

The men, they say, are no
different. "They become quite ruthless where matters of money are
concerned," it is alleged.Yet, has there been any concrete evidence that
Zimbabwean politicians are necessarily more corrupt than politicians in
other countries of the region? Hardly.

But someone said recently that
the case of the former president of Zambia, Frederick Chiluba, is
instructive in this respect. According to this self-styled analyst: "If this
man was a Zimbabwean, nobody would ever have discovered he had stolen so
many millions from the State.

The trail would have led to a deadend -
that's how different the Zimbabweans are from the rest of the leaders in the
region."As citizens who want to safeguard our wealth from the clutches of
these politicians, we should sharpen our weapons to protect our rights, all
our rights.

It's a shame Mugabe happened to
Zimbabwe

I studied
African politics for my political science minor in college about the time
white Rhodesia gave way to Zimbabwe.

We heard as guest lecturer
South African Alan Paton, author of "Cry, The Beloved Country." He died in
1988.

With all its natural resources, from a gold-mining region to the
tourist-tempting Victoria Falls and wildlife such as lions and hippos,
nobody foresaw prosperous Zimbabwe being reduced to misery by Robert
Mugabe.

Mugabe's ruinous policies imploded this promising African nation
into one of the poorest and most repressive countries on the
globe.

In the 1980s, Zimbabwe enjoyed the second largest economy in
southern Africa. It afforded the best education and health care on the
continent.

Today, nobody is even sure of the population. Eleven million?
Thirteen million? It's hard to count with everyone heading for the red
hills, risking crocodiles in the Limpopo River and lions in South Africa's
Kruger National Park as they fled, led by intelligent people, such as
doctors, lawyers and teachers.

Mugabe has steadily become
single-minded in clinging to power at all costs, devastating his economy and
presiding over a police state.

Unemployment is at 80 percent. Living
standards are said to be at 1953 levels.

The World Health
Organization says life expectancy is 34 for women and 37 for men - lowest in
the world.

Inflation hit 1,792.9 percent in February and is projected to
reach 3,700 percent by the end of 2007.

What this means, I read, is
that one brick costs more than a three-bedroom house with a swimming pool
did in 1990.

Traffic is no longer a common sight on roads. Telephones
don't work. Power is out. Factory stacks spew no smoke.

You don't
hear much about it because foreign journalists are routinely refused
permission to venture there.

Like Castro in Cuba or Saddam in Iraq,
"Comrade" Mugabe's photo looks down on the whole mess through his gold
glasses in framed photographs in every bare-shelved store, gas station,
hotel reception area and government office.

He commands the front page of
every newspaper to rail about the West plotting "monkey business" against
his country.

In an interview on his 83rd birthday, Mugabe said, "Some
people say I am a dictator. My own people say I am handsome."

So he's
delusional, too, cooped up in his 25-bedroom villa in the capital Harare
with Italian-marble bathrooms and roof tiles from Shanghai.

Since 2000,
Mugabe has encouraged mobs to invade farms owned by the remaining tens of
thousands of white residents, who back his opposition.

He stokes the
paranoia that Britain and the United States are bent on recolonizing
Zimbabwe. He wants people to fear him more than hate him, and hate
themselves most of all.

The ruling party, Zanu-PF, has already endorsed
him as its candidate for the 2008 presidential election.

Amnesty International publishes Zimbabwean exiles’
newspaper

International Journalists' Network

07/05/2007

A band of exiled Zimbabwean
journalists and researchers have published a newspaper issue dedicated to
covering the troubled state of Zimbabwe’s media. The Daily News
in Exile is a six-page report of violence, repression, and
struggle.

It is also the story of The
Daily News, a private newspaper founded in 1999. When it finally closed in
2004, it had risen to become the nation’s leading independent news source,
despite the bombing of its printing press, the arrest of its staff, the
occupation of its offices by police, and constant harassment by state
monitors.

Under the slogan “Telling It Like It
Is For World Press Freedom Day” (which is May 3), the Daily News in
Exile features detailed reports, statistics, editorials, cartoons, and
photographs that recount recent and historical press freedom violations in
Zimbabwe.

The paper is
being published by the Amnesty International Irish Section, and is written by
Geoffrey Nyarota (the founder and former editor-in-chief of The Daily
News), Sandra Nyaira
(a Daily News correspondent), and researchers Nyasha
NyakunuandSimeon
Mawanza.

To read
The Daily News in Exile, listen to their radio magazine, or learn more
about the status of media repression in Zimbabwe, visit http://snipurl.com/1j83f. For more
information, to sign a petition letter, or to join a group that supports human
rights and media freedom in Zimbabwe, contact zimbabwegroup@amnesty.ie.

Nomination Of Zimbabwe Minister To Head U.N. Panel Stirs
Polemic

VOA

By Ndimyake Mwakalyelye Washington 07 May
2007

The United States and Britain have expressed their
opposition to the election of a member of the cabinet of Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe to chair the United Nations Commission on
Sustainable Development.

But news reports, among them a Financial Times
article, said it is likely that Environment Minister Francis Nhema will be
elected to the post this week as it is the turn of Africa to name the
panel's chief and nomination has broad African support.

The
commission's brief is to examine the relationship between development and
the environment. The U.N. panel was established in 1993.

The FT quoted a
U.N. diplomat as saying Nhema "looked almost certain" to clinch the
commission chair after securing the African nomination last
month.

The U.N. is expected to announce the new appointment on May
11.

U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Friday that "we don't
think that Zimbabwe would be a particularly effective leader of this body,"
as development in Zimbabwe has "been going in only one direction. And it's
backwards."

Zimbabwe's permanent representative to the United
Nations, Ambassador Boniface Chidyausiku, told reporter Ndimyake Mwakalyelye
of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the rotating committee chair process at
the institution made it a foregone conclusion that Nhema would chair the
panel, over Western objections.